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tv   African Americans Disabled Soldiers and Combat Medical Care  CSPAN  October 18, 2015 4:22pm-6:01pm EDT

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competitive, and if he had made a decision to do it, he would have had his heart and soul into it, but from the very beginning it is not something that he ever really thirsted after. >> tonight :00 at 8 p.m. eastern and pacific on c-span's q&a. >> next on american history tv from the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland, three scholars present talks about what they refer to as marginalized aspects of the american revolution. the areas covered include african-americans, disabled soldiers, and combat medical care. program includes many anecdotes and examples that illustrate what life was like during the revolutionary war for these marginalized groups. and welcome toon the third panel today of the naval history symposium for 2015.
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i am an associate professor of history here the naval academy. my field of research is japanese history, but what i specifically write about is japanese military medicine and the experiences of japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans. our panel today has two papers about medicine, another paper about experiences of african americans in naval affairs, and the panel's title is from the , african-americans, disabled soldiers, and combat medical care. we have three presenters today, -- our first presentation will be christopher, who is giving a presentation titled no arms, no problem, the surprising and somewhat scandalous life of a disabled 19th-century soldier -- a sailor. . emeritus andfessor
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since 2012 has been a scholar in residence at the newberry library located in chicago. he is the author of a number of books, including a naval biography, which first appeared in 1972, a gentlemanly and honorable profession, the creation of the u.s. naval officer for,, which was sailored in 1991, and lives in a row navy, 1900-1945, which was per list by harvard university press and 2002 -- published by harvard university press in 2002. on current research centers the comparative study of enlisted men in the u.s. and british navies. without further or do, christopher mckee. >> thank you.
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i will watch the clock at the back and tie myself. -- time myself. as some of you know, i have been working on a project to find real sailors. a lot of history has been written about enlisted men in the navy in the 19th century based on autobiographic -- biographies of dubious and great salability could i have been ofing to track the expense real enlisted men in the navy. can't time constraints, i explain what that naval home is good that would take us off on a side track. event, i'm very doubtful about all of those great autobiographies from the -- and all these adventures they relate
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and so forth. you,tore am about to tell i read this, but i wouldn't have believed it. everybody i'm going to tell you can be tied back to a document. everything really happened. i can shake the document it is linked to. it concerns a young man born in london,, dennis, 24 years old when he came to the united states in june of 1847. he was an experienced sailor, so enlisted at princeton he jobhad a fairly responsible at the rank of semen. so we know he was an experienced sailor already. expatriate russian nobleman, visitedatoly demo.,
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firedton, and the captain 13 men saluting his honor when he left the ship. 11th done, the 13 gun on the gunisfire blewdennis was manning and off his arms below the elbow. , there is the princeton. emidov up in the corner. he was upset and sent members of haventourage to try to
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prosthetic arms created for him in london and paris. they were heavy and awkward and needed work and he was unhappy with them. dennis kept trying to rejoin the princeton. seems to misshow the next port, traveling with count demidov. indid rejoin the princeton time to return to the united states in 1847. because he was disabled, he was -- thed into the land united states naval home. he did not stay there long because since he had no arms he had to have a full-time attendant to feed him and he was , the samee hospital
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building as the naval home in philadelphia. thereted about two months and then moved to a boarding house in philadelphia. i should have mentioned earlier that in addition to sending him around to find prosthetic arms, he settled an annuity of $80 a year on him. it was an annual payment of $80 a year. and federalack pay pension for his injury and had dov, soey from count demi he moved into a boarding house in philadelphia. the tension was six dollars a month. pension was six dollars a month. he felt an armless man can't live on six dollars a month. , dennis hasf 1850
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relocated himself to washington dc, where he petitions congress to begin given a pension of $30 a month. was by this act blasted in a moment of all future prospects, few can appreciate my gloomy feeling and is fun and see. i quote this as evidence that you can't trust pension applications. they make it sound as helpless as this suggest. commerce gives him a lifetime pension of $30 a month. in later years, that's raised to $50 a month, then $72 a month, then 1889 to $100 a month. meanwhile, he still has his money from count demidov.
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busy feeling sorry for himself? not at all. he's married to a woman from assume they, and we met in philadelphia at the boarding house where he was staying. we guess, we don't know. later, he hasrs become naturalized as a u.s. citizen because this is a prerequisite for being employed by the federal government. census taker comes around, he finds that sarah and, have two children,, is working omas istchman -- th working as a watchman -- sorry, that is the naval home in philadelphia. he still has his pension.
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paid to be a watchman, pension, money from count demidov. that is his only job. he collects rent for property owners in the navy yard. stable onivery capitol hill. and he owns two small frame houses near the navy yard. this is not bad. this is less than 10 years after he is injured. his neighbors know him as a good-looking man, about -- blue eyes, light complexion. .e has a great personality he has a very outgoing, friendly personality. he is an honest, hard-working man. he is a strong tempered advocate. he is really respected for having overcome a severe disability. on the fifth of october,
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his neighbors find out that he may be something more than this. he was a confidence man. the previous night, someone who knew him and run into dennis at the washington railway station, where dennis tells him he's going to take a train to new york. at this point, his creditors begin comparing notes and discover that he has borrowed upwards of $10,000 from different people over the last several years. he used it to speculating gold. meanwhile, he has already transfer the two houses on g toeet to some third party protect them from being seized. the rumor is that he's going to new york and taking a steamer to york. we don't know what he really did. 11 months later he turns up again in washington, where he is interviewed by washington star reporter. this guy gets a lot of media
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coverage. he says he has been in pennsylvania, but not the whole time. onlyoblem about the debt, $6,000. i will repay every penny of it. he returns to his old job of selling newspaper advertising, but like a lot of promises, the promise to repay his creditors doesn't quite work out. he decides to take advantage of the bankruptcy act of 1867 and the court records show he $8,243, which was -- 6700to 6700 $62 $622. my lawyer daughter can't figure out why the drop. that cleans off all his debts. he makes a fresh start in life. 1869 in 1877 he works at
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the treasury department. he has an annual salary of $720 a year, plus his pension, less annuity from count demidov. they have added two more children to the family and have had a child who has died in between. dennis stays out of trouble for about a decade. in 1878, the washington evening star has a story about a messy real estate transaction, which i won't attempt to unravel, involving the dennis livery stable on capitol hill on 3rd street. that is now operating by his son, anatolia.
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. at the end of the story, there is an interesting note, the star reports that, dennis has left the city for fairview, maryland. the story of having his run away with a large amount of money and a woman not his wife it is believed is without foundation." larget tell you about the sum of money, but i continued that the rest of the story about running away with the woman is all too true. in january, 1879,, dennis arrives in my hometown of chicago, and then on the eighth of july a child, george edward dennis, is born in chicago to, and a woman named francis dennis. there is no francis dennis legally at this point. this woman is a native of
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virginia, 34 years younger than thomas. she became pregnant in 1878, and then about this time, the real returns to, sarah, her hometown of allentown, pennsylvania, presumably to live with relatives, and she conveniently dies there about a year later. thomas and sarah cannot get legal. they are in chicago. they hop the train to milwaukee, where they are married in the chapel of all saints the fiscal cathedral by the dean at the cathedral. 1893, theyntil continue to live in chicago, have no more children, george edward is their only child. tells the census
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taker that his occupation is speculated. -- real fact is he watches works as a watchman and then later the federal customs house in chicago. federal courthouse and federal customs house, we have a great tradition and chicago, beautiful and important building. that is not there anymore. it has been replaced by a steel skyscraper. watchman in as a that building. in 1893, he gets caught in a downsizing in the customs house skills, auy has great real survivor, great skills at getting to know the right people. it turns out that walter q get extra credit if
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you know who he is. walter q gresham is a judge on the federal circuit court of illinois, but in the first cleveland administration, cleveland appoints him as secretary of state he dies after two years in office, so he does not have a major impact on her diplomatic history. obviously, he has cultivated the judge, so when he gets appointed secretary of state, thomas is able to land a job as a watchman at the state were in navy building in washington, which he holds. ,his job pays $720 a year tension of $1200 a year, still have his money from count demidov.
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he and francis are certainly not already couple. sorry, they, -- i'm have decided to move back to washington dc after all the now, everybodyws is forgot about it, 12 years later, and they moved back. now, dennis has become something of a media personality in washington. the newspaper stories feature him as a federal employee who has overcome a severe disability. he has prostatic arms now that worked pretty well for him. he demonstrates his new prosthetic hands, picking up papers for his daily work, uses his elbow to call the elevator in the building. he picks up a glass of water with his teeth and drink it without spilling it. [laughter] name bye signs his holding a can in his teeth. i've seen his signature.
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it is really pretty amazing. and the little-known fact of ,merican history, by this time theodore roosevelt assistant secretary of the navy in the , nonley ministration problem, as an advocate of , he rides his bicycle to work every day in washington, c can imagine the number two person today riding his bike, so when he gets to the building, he gives the bike to dennis to put away for the day. so he and roosevelt get to know each other, and it turns out that such share the same birthday, the 27th of february, so once mckinley is fascinated , andeddy becomes president
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every year at the annual soirée for his birthday at the white is there is an honored guest. you might want to know what this guy looks like. that's what teddy looked like, but there is dennis, one of the washington papers at the time. he is working until 1902, 81 years old, and then he decides to retire and live on his pension, and a pot of save money. .oney sticks to his hands , heher newspaper story
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plans to just live his retirement, and list of the 100. that the sad part of the story. he doesn't get to live to be 100. in 1904, he displays signs of dementia and declines slowly and dies on the 23rd of july, 1908, 85 years old. he is buried and washington congressional cemetery, drumroll please. there is his tomb. is some moneyre somewhere goes this is not a cheap tombstone and, the final forgotten theot naval origins of his life. this is the anchor on top of the tomb. that is his story. it was pretty amazing story of
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one real sailor, and if i could not document it, i wouldn't believe it. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you very much, chris. let me just close this. switch to our next speaker. we how -- will have speaker questions at the end of the panel. our second speaker is deborah jackson, who will speak on a black sailors prospects on board the uss mount vernon. and in many tenants color and administrator at the metropolitan museum of art in new york city and has published her scholarship in a number of venues, including the virginia magazine of history and biography, new york history and
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african american national biography. her current research explores how inland waterway systems in the south supporting slavery and -- in antebellum america. she has an essay on this topic that will be appearing in the published volume of papers from the previous mcmullen naval history symposium from 2013. deborah jackson. will hand you the magic wand. >> thank you. it's great to be back at annapolis. betalk this afternoon will man who served on
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board the uss mount vernon. blacks have a long, proud history in the military. this is a headline from a florida newspaper in february, 2001. indeed, black military participation predated the forming of the nation, a neglected fact of u.s. history that was repeatedly reclaimed and asserted by african-americans from the earliest days of the republic. wilmer cooper, the colored patriots of the revolution was another reminder of the bayou the black military presence and it's consistent and vital role in the nation's development. at the outbreak of the civil war, the nation required another reminder of the lee terry readiness of black men, and
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army allowedu.s. large-scale black enlisted in segregated units, the u.s. navy had no such an racial restrictions. as they had done since the days of the continental navy, black sailors during the civil war, some 25% of the union naval force, black sailors served along side their white counterparts in defeating the confederacy. here the image from the uss miami, circa 1864, these are views of the servicemen of the uss also be, eight black men served the union and were awarded the medal of honor during the civil war. despite the record of service, as the 19th century waned, they were increasingly obliged to assume positions of stewards,
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this man, and other service roles. one naval historian has observed that the proportion of blacks enlisted as -- you listed mariner as their occupation decreased to 5.9% in 1890. among those who enlisted in the navy. the time that began with "the first world war saw the negro as a member of the navy" wrote another scholar at the end of world war ii. even with their opportunities in the service restricted at the time of the great war, black men in this did and excelled in -- in the face of adversity. those achievements were reported the publication titled american negro in the world war. his book was published in 1919, and it reproduced correspondence from top officials of the american expeditionary forces and was generously illustrated to document the successes of black military personnel, and as a special adjunct to newton
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baker, scott was uniquely positioned to collect the raw whichor such by them, included a wealth of statistics on the strength of the ready response of negro draftees to the selective service calls as scott put it. this bottom slide shows dr. scott with members of his staff and his washington dc office. scott made a point of noting in his preface that or hundred thousand or more black men entered active military service. one of those 400,000 men was edward donahue pearson junior, a 19-year-old who served aboard the uss mount vernon, which was a troop transport that regularly cross the atlantic and did duty in the waters between the list channel and the day of this guy. -- bay of biscay. she was repeated by a german viewpoint -- u-boat on the fifth of september, 1918, the french
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government awarded pearson the war cross for his actions on behalf of his ship following the explosion. this paper will explore some aspects of the life and times of edward pearson and the world he knew at home and houston and aboard the mount vernon. edward donahue pearson junior was born in 1899, the youngest edwardthree children of donahue pearson of louisiana, edward senior, and elizabeth of south carolina. edward senior was an educated man with a degree from bishop college and marshall, texas. at the time of young edwards enlistment, his father was a teacher at the high school in houston a newspaper editor, an officer for the western star publishing company. here's an senior would have enjoyed a fair amount of influence in houston's black community as a member of the knights of pythias, one of the
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wealthiest fraternal orders of the time. and as a deacon of the antioch baptist church. pearson senior was also a property owner and president of the houston chapter of that , the business league national organization of booker t. washington. pearson's association with washington's organizations meant he was likely a registered voter. this is significant as the disenfranchisement of black men had been proceeding systemically throughout the south since the , and here istury washington second from left with the members of his executive committee. so pearson senior and his family enjoyed the kind of respectable, prosperous life that washington had espoused in his ideology of lack of left, which favored engagement and professional activities that offered examples to white america of negro prosperity.
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so why does any of this matter? i would argue that this family background tells as several things about the 19-year-old pearson. we know first that he was a relatively educated southerner at a time when adult literacy rates were uneven across the south and lag behind late's death rates in northern states. his familyedward and seemed content to remain in the south, unlike tens of thousands of black families that had been on the move north since the turn of the 20 century. one might also infer that pearson junior was a well spoken young man, having had the benefit of growing up in a household where his father no doubt entertained this is an, probably including the influential washington's. and where he was privy to discussions of politics and other news of the day. from his draft registration chart, we might further suggest that he had some measure of self-confidence and an
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entrepreneurial spirits. he told a recruiting officer that he was self-employed and work as -- using a rented car. houston's view of the world outside his family circle in houston during the time of declaration of war in 1917 until the time of his enlistment? did he hear patriotic sermons as he sat in his appeal at antioch. where there were meetings convened a black churches in houston of the type convened in northern churches during the civil war? i tried to imagine what this global conflict meant for this young man. newspapers obviously paid a large role in conveying information about the war, that there was a huge media blitz as americans used every available means, print, sound, film, lectures, performances to bolster the war effort.
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from the colorful lyrics and catchy war-related tunes to the dissemination of enlistment and often heavily anti-german propaganda issued by the committee on public information. the nation was saturated with a hyper patriotism that young edward undoubtably followed in his community. african-americans supported president wilson without reservation. this was a fact borne out in the assessment of scott when he said "ready response of negro draftees to the selective service calls together with the numerous patriotic activities of negro generally." you not justshow to suggest pearson junior knew the specific images. i just offer them as a weight to give you a sense of how
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recruiters targeted the black community. draftees during the great war represented 13% of those serving, although blacks constituted only 10% of the population. tois of course difficult know to what extent any part of the media campaign resonated with peers and or what motivated him to choose the navy over the army. publicized racial incident in his hometown would have garnered his attention and no doubt left a chilling effect. in august, 1917, 13 black soldiers were tried and hanged following a violent conflict with white civilians. these are soldiers from the 24th infantry's third the time that was stationed in houston. navy andn chose the was assigned to the mount vernon and served most likely as a mess attendant, cook, or steward within the mess branch.
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the mount vernon was one of about three dozen german ships that had been appropriated by the united states at the time of the declaration of war and repaired and refitted for service, and at the top you will the german luxury liner at bar harbor in 1914, and then below after it was appropriate by the u.s. navy, repainted in its dazzled camouflage design. i will say just a bit about dazzle or camouflage design just to remind the room of what this meant, what this program meant to the u.s. navy and to its allies. attack alliedats , norman the atlantic wilkinson looked at these events and had a brilliant idea. he was an officer in the room
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navy. he reasoned that since it was impossible to paint a ship so that it would be invisible to a submarine, it was possible to paint it in a way that would break up the form of the ship, and does confuse the submarine officer as to the course on which the ship was heading. so in this first slide you see painters in a workshop painting and actually building the models in which they tested these designs. this is a dazzled design for the hmt olympic, and the hmt olympic newly painted according to that design. this is the uss everglades, and you get the idea. are aboutemes deception and outmaneuvering the enemy and saving lives if possible. was the dazzle
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program in protecting american ships against u-boat attacks? of the 1250 ships that were dazzled as of march 1918, only 18 were lost. for sunken accidents, three destroyed by mines, therefore less than 1% of u.s. dazzled ships were sunk. some scholars argue that the effectiveness of the decile scheme could be seen in the number of ships that although hit him a were nonetheless able ,o return to the reports safely and indeed this was true of the mount vernon, which safely docked under its own steam after being torpedoed, as we will see in a moment. so what was it like living and working on the mount vernon? while in port, the ship's log reveals the regular loading of supplies and food in great quantities. the regular transfer of personnel. and crowded men
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quarters, it's not surprising to learn that tempers flared and men spun out of control. the log entry for the time shortly after the ship was put into service note that there were several court marshals aboard the ship. was one of then fastest troop transports in the service, and she had much to do with the tens of thousands of men that needed transport back and forth across the atlantic. reporter aboard one of the 13th transports to carry 36,000 men to france in august of 1918, we get a vivid sketch of the scene on board. ,soldiers act the decks supplies and every cabin, hatch, and between decks, wound to the bowels of the ship. the spacious promenade deck and disappeared, and its place work long lines of mental hammocks for the men to sleep in the open on deck, as well as tween decks."
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this correspondence cap count is rare in that it takes note of one of the african-american mess men working in the kitchen ", this and he observed was a meatless days, but one of the coax -- cooks opened us when they wonder why the journalists felt the need to single out the negro, perhaps they thought it might entertain the way leadership. ofpeculate on the omission edward pearson's role in the aftermath of the attack on the mount vernon on the fifth of september, 1918. all of the ships senior officers reported on the incident and not mentioned pearson, whose action earned him the highest military honor bestowed by the french government. on the fifth of september, shortly after daybreak, while on his return to the u.s. and still 200 miles off the coast of france, the mount vernon
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was struck. it was flooded. members of primarily the fire crew, were killed in the explosion or died from burns. although damaged, the mount vernon was able to reach port in andce under its own steam safely deliver the passengers on board that had been bound for the u.s. senator james hamilton lewis of illinois, as well as a number of army officers and 100 wounded soldiers. by the way, that slideshow of powervernon on its own and one of her escorts is laying a smokescreen. while the reports of the captain and his senior officers praised , the captainew
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single that the under deck men for special appreciation and declared his admiration for the brave men of the engineers force. mentions log never pearson by name, although many references were made to unnamed men, many of them off-duty, who painted their shipmates by working at the bulkheads to hold back tons of water. the log notes many unnamed men who assisted the dozens of wounded and ill soldiers. the wounded pearson was presumably settled in hospital abreast while he recovered. he had no official recognition from his captain our country, nonetheless received the croix de guerre from a grateful french government. earlier this year, i watch the white house ceremony at which president obama posthumously awarded the medal of honor for , offorld war i soldiers
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the docket breast, where mount vernon was safely arrived. croix de guerre. that is private johnson on the left. he was a member of the famed harlem health fighters -- the famed harlem hellfighters. he observed that it is never too late for america to honor its heroes. i find that sentiment hopeful, and look forward to the day when records may reveal reports on the specific actions of seaman m andson and those like him, that they might one day receive their government's recognition as heroes. sergeant slide -- this major lewis wilson accepting the medal of honor on behalf of private johnson, and the daughters of sergeant sherman.
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thank you. [laughter] [applause] >> i had ahead note here -- for those who would like to become a this is then, matrix of some of the areas that will be looked at.
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>> the speaker today is dennis ringle, a retired commander of the u.s. navy. after 22 years of service on five ships -- i were member reading that in the profile information -- he also put in some devil duty, as a teacher, both at a high school level and the community college level. he is the author of the 2008 book "life and mr. lincoln's navy," and his current work is ofedited volume of letters the journal of thomas c dudley, a member of matthew perry's trip to japan in the early to mid-1850's, which helped to open up japan to the western world.
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if you need to take a bathroom break, the head is located down the hallway and outside. please know that there is no toilet paper but there is plenty of fresh air and sunshine. [laughter] and with that we will begin. compliments to the hms endeavor. my paper deals with both combat experiences and emergency medical treatment of these men following battle during the age of sail. due to time constraints i will focus primarily on the medical aspects the naval surgeons treating these wounded sailors. i would like to first notice that the majority of the navy
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ships for this period, 90% of the crew were enlisted. 1991, the stillness of the night was broken by a whoosh and a flash as a tomahawk cruise missile left the battleship uss wisconsin. simultaneously, the surface of the red sea was broken by another tomahawk cruise missile fired from the submarine uss louisville. on two aircraft carriers, a number of young sailors prepared to attack the military forces of saddam hussein. desert shield had turned into desert storm. the united states was in another war. war, primarily
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fought by young sailors, who had received the best training in the world. training. fleet but what about the sailors of the early age of sail and steed? what about their training and their courage under fire? far different from those in 1991. first, and navy ship back in nned bymote time was ma sailors recruited by the commanding officers. they did not have personnel assigning people to ships. in socialdmark book reform movement, dr. harriet langley addresses some of the scruples for which they recruited officers and i refer mentionsat book, which the different ways the commanding officers manned their
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ships. in addition, the crew had to go ysical. a medical ph the navy during this period of that youto make sure recruit none other than hardy, robust, well engaged men, well-organized, healthy and free from scurvy or consumptive effects, illnesses of the lu ng. that was your medical exam, far different than today. guidelines -- there were no manuals in the early navy. 1797,atter of fact, in the first naval regulation did not even address training. in 1814, the new naval regulations had 57 individual
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responsibilities of the commanding officer, of which only four address training. on the job training is the way the sailors learn to their trade. -- learn to their trade. -- learned their trade. weapon systems of the day. unlike the army, where soldiers or perhaps bullets, a projectile fired from a six or 10 pound cannon, sailors had to shot, keennds, bar shot, grate shot.
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they manned cannons that weight over 2000 pounds. this is a crew from the uss constellation in baltimore. spherical k shot, round shot, solid shot. great shot. balls, three inches in diameter, fired at the crew. the great guns that i
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alluded to wait as much as 3000 pounds. that in cruise anywhere from 11 to 14 sale it -- that can injure anywhere from 11 to 14 sailors. one sailor wrote that on his ship, his division had 27 separate commands, while another division had only three. fire, load, run out. well trained navy crew could fire their cannons one round seconds.tely 75 ordinances the men faced, spherical shot, solid shot, later
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shells as large as 100 pounds. they also had wooden splinters 12 feet in diameter spiraling into the ship when the cannonball pierced beside, striking down men. in addition, they had to worry about mines later in the century, plus the fact that with the addition of steam, a pipe would break, and they would be scolded to death. they also had to worry about fire in flooding. -- fire and flooding. the medical community of this .eriod emergency medical treatment at sea. the medical arm was very successfu -- was a very
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successful part of rour se aservice. ther it was a low patient to dr. doctor ratio. have had three surgeons assigned, a far greater ratio than what the army would -- aryans during the civil the army would experience during the civil war. was based onment and mostobservation, importantly, strict medical qualifications. i refer you to the handout. a naval surgeon had to be a graduate of one of the handful of existing medical schools. he had to pass a written
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exam, had to be physically qualified, and then he had to pass an oral board, which consisted of three naval surgeons. the oral board would evaluate the candidates for morrelale and habits. he would be given a literary oft, primarily as a result his ability to maintain a journal, a log, and to correspond with his superiors, especially the commanding officer. he had to know greek and latin. most of the medicines of the day were written in latin or greek. he professional knowledge, was quizzed on anatomy, chemistry, surgery, pharmacology, general medicine, and jurisprudence.
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responsibilities consisted of boarding sick call, examining the sick and wounded. he would then possibly be required to cut or bleed or dressing.re in the early days, they still bled sailors. he would have to write prescriptions and administer log,, maintain a medical journal entries. prepare medicines -- this was in soera before pharmacology, he would begin in a quantity of drugs and then he would have to ration them to make up the medications for the day.
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prepare the list of those sailors that were excused from duty for that day. a copy would then be submitted to the commanding officer, another posted at the pinnacle was, so the shielwheel everyone could see which sailors were excused from duty. that is a tradition we still do today. take duties -- muster. in a lot of cases he was the preacher for the day. he sat in on court-martial boards, maintained a weather journal, and had to attend social functions. quarters were the real reason he was on board ship. during a time of combat, he operated in an area of the ship
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that was permitted to say the least, his working conditions. cramped and below the waterline with low air. illumination was by flickering candle. very poor ventilation, if any. shipad the movement of the . working on a moving platform trying to perform surgery. the noise of battle, the smell of smoke. it was truly a dantes "inferno." the merit of injuries in battle -- amputation required most skill and mental anguish. about then talk amputation procedures during the age of early steed.
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surgeon had to realize that the removal of an appendage meant that the man would go through the rest of his life as a cripple. uponation was only decided to save the sailor's life. hen an incision was made, would have to surgeons hold the patient down. amputations, the sailor was awake. a third person would hold the limb down. an amputation of a leg halfway up the thigh. he would apply a turn a high up as he could to stem the low of flow of blood. he would try to save as much skin as possible.
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the circular cut was the preferred method of the day -- he would make a circular cut and withdraw this skin, hold it back. from this point he would then take a scalpel or curved knife, cutting in a circular fashion once again, just above the wound, down to the bone. blood, aave got losing patient that is moving, and probably screaming. at this point, he would place a knife on the table or perhaps closer to his team to pick up the bone saw. he would start with the heel of saw,one, the heel of the on the bone and slowly draw back towards himself, making slow cuts back and forth until the bone was severed. if the bones splintered, he
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would take out a file and file down the bone. has exposedhe now arteries, where he would now clamp them off, and then tie them off with sutures. then take this skin down, full that it over the wound -- folded that over the wound, creating a sticky plaster over it to hold the skin in place. in place over that, flannel or lint, allowing the patient to recover for several days. he would then remove it and check how the healing process of the amputation. the most remarkable examples occurred during the battle and the ussvierier
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constitution during the war of 1812. a sailor by the name of richard wound.d an upper five -- upper tigh wound. evans,geon, dr. abel's evans describes the amputation process. for what is most interesting is the poster reputation treatment -- the amputation treatment of the wound. he removed the dressing, noticing that there is some pus on the wound. into the wound. doctors and medical people of the day -- was he trying to clean the wound?
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have,informed that he may or he may have been using the , andto absorb the pus perhaps losing blood. or perhaps also he had seen read that the application of sand helps stimulate tissue growth. silica, of which send as a part of, to help stimulate tissue growth in and amputees. 200 years ago. evans would further write that the wound eventually would heal, and the sailor would eventually be discharged with a pension from the navy. another surgeon, 20 years later, wrote about a foot amputations
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still used in the same circular evans utilized, but this time after the front had been removed and the stump had been sutured and covered, he gram of patient one morphine with water every half hour for pain. wine for hisbed patient. he did not have morphine on board. days,rgeon, after several noticed that the wound was healing, however it gave off an "offensive odor." when changing the dressing, ere maggots present. a were eating this loft off skin and were left to continue to clean the wound. the sailor did survive.
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the same surgeon performed sailor that received a sort of cutlass wound in the upper five. tight.r he was having a hard time controlling the bleeding so he place cork from a bottle, it in the wound, wrapped a turn tourniquet around it. he left the ship with a limp. compound fractures. you have a bone broken through the skin. whosergeon wrote preferred treatment was to push the bone matter back inside the skin, wrap it tightly, place it in a splint, place the leg on a
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pillow, until the person healed. overall, the sailors received remarkable care for the period. the naval medical service was very successful, and we owe an awful lot to them. summary, these heroic men who served in the navy during the age of sail established a vitalable record of protection for our merchant fleet. on the eve of the american civil war, these sailors and medical service corps provided a well-trained nucleus from watch the navy was able to build upon. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. [applause]
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>> thank you very much. i would like to invite all of our speakers today to join us at the front. we will have time for some q&a, after a make some comments from the speakers. and unpack these really interesting papers. dress my comments one by one to the three presenters -- there are some questions, but i will leave until after i finish my comments for them to address them. but i also want to open up questions to the floor so we can hear what the audience has to say about these presentations. with that said, the first paper i will turn to is by chris mckee, who i think does a very excellent job of charting the ast of an injured sailor, disabled veteran, con man, and a dignitary favored by teddy roosevelt.
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he didn't always certainly seem to land on his feet, or he did when confronted with adversity. i read his paper and it was quite amusing to hear about the ups and downs of the scandalous individual. heari would have liked to more about is the general state of disabled veterans affairs in during a rather long but a quite consequential period of time from 1840 to 1900 or thereabouts. what sorts of services exist in the 1850's? he was injured in 1847. it is important to clarify that when it comes to his injuries, he did not suffer a war wound.. a serviceave been related injury, but oftentimes they apply different types of benefits and pensions depending on the disposition of the wound. this is a sailor who becomes an americans of the
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sev citizen. where there have been different pensions and benefits in place or men with service related injuries as opposed to a war wound. in your paper and the presentation that congress had granted him a pension, but was this standard at that time for sailors, or did a result from the spectacular incident that created the injury. a number of political dignitaries were killed in that event. , during the mid to late 1800s, how committed was the u.s. government to improving the financial, the physical, and perhaps the spiritual well-being of its injured serviceman? a little more context would have helped me to frame the life of this rather scandalous individual, to plot him a bit
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more firmly in this period from the 1840's to 1900. in the middle of that period, i can't help but think of the civil war, which we know was a rather consequential, momentous seems that for dennis, much of his life spent as a disabled veteran was lived in the wake of the civil war. i am wondering if any of the new policies that might have been created in the wake of that conflict would have applied it to dennis. would he have been grandfathered into new policies following the conflict of 1860? my question, hopefully in his comments, responses to some questions, if he could give us to plot histion story within that of the american disabled veterans at large. -- it wasly was a nice to learn about the individual and his experiences,
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and he had a rather exceptional life. to be sure, i am glad you survived, but to open the context of the more would have been something i would like to see. but before we turn that, i want to turn to debbie jackson's paper and make some comments and questions as well. i learned much from her clearly composed and well structured study of edward pearson, but also the story of the uss mount vernon. it provided the presentation with a wealth of information and in the process i think it raises an important question, and this is something i have also looked at in my work with disabled servicemen. in the wake of war, how do we honor the actions of heroes without historical voices, so to speak? as is the case of edward pearson, who was praised by the instance, the not
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so much by the u.s. navy in its own discourse. this is a heroic individual and he is deserving of praise and comment and historical record, but as historians or perhaps people who live through wars, what are we to make of these whose voices are often lost during these conflicts? related to that, the question that i have is, when it comes to the biographical information about pearson, which i really appreciate, hearing about his background, an entrepreneurial spirit -- a little more on the sources of that information -- is this coming from his community? wasn't publicized after he became a noted individual, because of the recognition by the french? in the course of the presentation, for sources would have been something i would have
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appreciated. as such, i would be willing to hear more about your experiences as a researcher as he studied him and helps to provide a voice to him. it is really interesting to hear about this person who was a casualty of history. i would like to hear more about that. with that, i would also like to have you talk a little bit in terms of plausible theorizing as to any factors other than the dire straits of being on board the mount vernon that may have led to pearson's aerobic aeroheroic activity. was he doing his duty -- or these things of his background -- was there something in his background that essentially determined his mettle?
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demonstratedy not but in terms of written word i would like to hear your thoughts. i would also like to learn more about the dazzle ships, which are fascinating. but i would like to focus a little bit on the individuals of the program, then maybe a few minutes to hear about this program. i have never heard of it before. it seems so quintessentially english to take the word dazzle. lastly, our third presentation by dennis ringle. i thought he provided a great amount of telling detail when it practicalhe amputation techniques required of naval surgeons during this early 19th-century period. i read a longer version of the paper, so some of the detail was then that wasn't in the presentation. there, buts still
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every once in a while a little bit of gore is healthy or patriotic. far from being saw bones alone, the surgeons were responsible for a wide range of medical and nonmedical duties, and this made them essential shipboard personnel. as you also point out, the ship was a tough environment. kid was pitching, it was moving, and as such, the surgeons needed to be highly skilled in order to be effective. moreover, this was pre-antisepsis, which has not yet emerged. these are things that i think medicalare considering practices, we as historians have to remember that the conditions of the day are often very different from those that we are familiar with today. i like how you incorporated the experience of the surgeon evans into your presentation, and i
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have seen a longer version, but i'm wondering if any of the exists aboutge navel, medical personnel for their entire careers? for example, could you give us a sense, if you know, of what a naval surgeon journal of the 1800s of look like? oft it simply be a list actions and activities, or what a surgeon take pains to list his little detail about what the sources were like. another thing is medical traditions. u.s.guessing that the naval forces follow the patterns of british naval surgery. such was the case later in the 19th century, when japan develops its modern navy. it chooses a medical system that it sees fit for that navy, and
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it takes british medicine. ,nd considers german medicine imperial japanese army medicine, but the two branches have medical traditions that are different. i am guessing, and you would have to unpack it for me, that american naval surgeons also embraced british medical practices. , are from the journals there historical sources such as official casualty reports that we could study? moreover, would these be available for helping us to form a wider perspective on early 19th-century naval medicine? other types of sources would be something i'd be interested to hear about. my thought that all three of the presentations were very thoughtfully arranged, nicely organized.
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i have these questions and perhaps we could hear some responses first, but then i would like to open up the floor to the audience so they can plumb the depths of these papers and we can hear some more thoughtful questions for our presenters. i do know if you would like to respond 00 -- >> this is the next charge from a much longer book, and i am constrained by 20 minutes. but here is a five-minute summary of pension law. wounded,re injured or you were automatically entitled to a pension, depending on the degree. if your commanding officer was still alive, and if the surgeon was still alive, or you could
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find them, and they show up to file the paperwork, you got the pension automatically. if they weren't, if some of it was not readily available, then you had -- the only records was to answer to congress. there were a lot of these. files in the house and senate are filled with these applications for pension, and this was the case. dennis wanted more than he was entitled to. it was a percentage of his monthly pay, because he wanted more. he had to get a private bill through congress and he obviously had some people helping him doing that. there was no distinction between battle wounds and hernias or broken legs or whatever. the pension. more complex by the
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end of the 19th century. nice thick book on pension law in the united states eventually. >> debbie, any thoughts on the topics i raised? >> i will start with dazzle. i am not certain that lieutenant wilkinson coined that term. i don't have any information about where that word originated. it is known -- this program is known as dazzle design or camouflage design. i guess that is something i could look into. the program was adopted by the u.s. navy, but it was originally implemented in britain with his
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own workshop and designers and model makers. your phrase, plausible theorizing, is well-taken. i won't say that i played fast and loose with my research and with the archives, but i am still hoping to uncover his service record. inif you have any contacts that office, let me know, because i have unable to recover office. the st. louis of themhave hopes saying that they are there. they have not said they were destroyed in the fire.
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>> but they have told you -- >> they have not. i am still hopeful. >> they are still working on it. >> they are still working on it. >> the enduring optimism of historians. medicine -- medical care? >> the naval museum -- last summer, they did an exhibit on the dazzle -- yes. i remember seeing that. when we walked out our eyes were like --[laughter] the medicine. yes, the united states did learn from the british with diseases, because james lynn wrote his
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famous treatise in 1744. the royal navy would adopt that as policy by 1790 in the war of the french revolution. hold, you better not have scurvy on board your ship. beforegley informed me our session that one of the things doctors demonstrated -- they would talk to other surgeons in other countries. in essence, not only the english, but it would be safe to say other surgeons around the world, they would learn stuff from. food can youof use, what kind of products -- wereelse, and all of them proficient in more than one language, unlike the captains.
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so they frequently functioned as interpreters as well. [laughter] records -- thes army did a lot better job of collecting and reporting on casualties. archives, navye surgeons were required to submit quarterly reports. the navy really haven't done anything with them. the big old barrel somewhere and i know the naval historical center is still coming up with stuff. studentsome graduate could have a great thesis. book, it landmark would be difficult to find -- >> well again, among some of the surgeons, there was a wide
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variety of how you kept records. some surgeons were very careful only the name, the rank, the nationality, the age, but other people didn't even put it at all. joe blow. [laughter] >> and most of those records were lost to history. through thesy up civil war to get a glimpse -- >> and on the pension business, after the mexican war, a lot of diseases. the pension office was flooded with information, questions. surgeons would be asked about this particular patient. i had 27 patients that day and i don't remember this guy -- i thi nk it was so-and-so, but he
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couldn't remember the details. >> there are medical journals for i would say a majority of 1812 in the period between in the civil war. they have various kinds -- you can follow any -- >> the ones that sat down and put it all together -- [laughter] >> that is the fun of scholarship. some phd student about their is looking for a naval -- >> that would be very useful, different things encountered. floor toopen the questions from the audience. maybe if you could give your
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name and say where you are from or your interest in these topics. any questions for many of our three presenters. birdine,e is charles currently one of the editors -- i had a question -- i enjoyed all three speakers, thank you. the question for all three panelists. population -- i know you crunched a lot of numbers [indiscernible]
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>> no, that is the next chapter. eborah, i was interested -- did pearson never reflect -- is there a cache of his papers from this time that reflects on his world war i service? >> not that i have seen. i have hopes of discovering a journal of some sort in the future, if i am lucky. but the pearson papers do exist for his father, who was associated with this national organization, run by washington. there may be something within those records that have been
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'slded into pearson, sr. letters. that is my next task. it would really be a fishing expedition, but one never knows. >> [indiscernible] in terms of -- have you come across any memoirs of surgeons [indiscernible]
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one, recapturing the experience, and it is interesting to hear about a surgical technique. do you find both of those -- >> first of all, there was a landmark book written in 1856 by g.a. horner, a former naval surgeon. it is basically a book that he wrote, telling new naval surgeons how to be a naval surgeon. it is the betty crocker of how to be a naval surgeon. another was published in 1956 by samuel cooper. two volumes, 1000 pages. when he gets into the amputation section, six or seven pages -- hehe is talking about would go in and say dr. smith likes to perform invitations using the conical way, and he
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pages, and rates 10, 15 then says why he doesn't prefer that method, then talks about the circular. it's like the dictionary of medical surgery. 1836. it is mind-boggling. >> is any of it illustrated, or was it -- >> well, what is kind of neat is book american surgeon, his has illustrations and everything, and the dictionary does not. that would have been nice. not only is it 1000 pages but it is small print. i don't know where this guy found type to write.
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this guy is sitting and i don't know how much ink you went through. i can't imagine. you have to see it to believe it. i was also able to get a hold of an 1813 medical dictionary. infection is in there, which surprised me. "then morphine, it said wonder drug, needs no more explanation." that was the definition. 1813. i found that a hoot. if you are reading these nitrates ofks, zinc, and iha and was happy to find that dr. langley had the same problem -- modern medical people, i don't know what to use that for.
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in thing i found interesting the horner book, which did not apply to this topic because it themergency battle -- british used to allow women to come on board ship because if they left the ship sailors were likely to come back. americans didn't do that except corner talks about in the 1828 medical deployment. they experimented with bringing women on board ship in the mediterranean. it was the assistant surgeon's job to inspect the women for any type of sexually transmitted disease. he went on to write that they teased the surgeon of being nearsighted during his inspection. there is even some tonk and she got there. ngue in cheek out
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there. thanks for that. command, i was at your we came across a logbook during the civil war and one of the basements, talked about lincoln visiting the navy yard 50 sometimes during the war, including the day he was assassinated? >> yeah. >> he had visited the navy -- he should have stayed for one more drink. [laughter] >> other questions for our presenters? >> i had a question. what became of pearson in later life? >> he married. he has a daughter. 1930, he iss of living with his wife and daughter, with his parents, in chicago.
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time as aing at that singer, believe it or not. it is very interesting but a little mysterious. how does he get there? what were the results of his experiences during the great war? i don't know whether he was able to receive a pension or not. of sergeantsion as i discovered in the course of some research, he was denied a pension because of some remarks he made to a st. louis newspaper in 1919. out of the benefit system entirely. i wonder if a similar fate was
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suffered. >> as he disappeared by then? >> i haven't gotten that far. i think the people of the family history branch would be able to do a lot with this. there could be a wealth of material, if he was in chicago very long. >> thank you. comment?questions or we have been very fortunate today to have three expert speakers. deborah jackson, christopher mckee, and dennis ringle. the panel title for today was
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"from margthe margins." from thefoar margins of history and sometimes they don't get the attention they deserve in the historical record. thank you very much for your presentation today. this is the last panel for the first day of the naval history symposium but i hope to see you here tomorrow morning bright and early. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] mind,eautification, to my is far more then a matter of cosmetics. to me, it describes the whole effort to bring the natural world in the man-made world into harmony, to bring order, usefulness, delight to our whole environment, and that of course
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only began for trees and flowers and landscaping. >> the bill was about beautifying the nation. her signature issue as first lady. campaigner,national successful businesswoman, and set a political partner to her husband, lbj. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's original series, "first ladies: influence and image," examining the public and private lives who fill the position who filled the first lady. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> this monday on c-span's new series, "landmark cases," by 1830 the mississippi river around new orleans had become reading ground for colorado and yellow fever, partly to the slaughterhouses dumping their byproducts into the river. this problem,
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louisiana a load only one government run slaughterhouse to operate in the city district. the others were taken to court. follow the slaughterhouse cases of 1873. we are joined by paul clement, former solicitor general, and michael roth, author, to help tell the history of this time. in the south. -- to help tell this time period in the south and the supreme court justices involved in this decision. be sure to join the conversation as we take your calls, tweets, and facebook comments during the program using hashtag #landmarkcases. for background on each case while you watch, order your copy of the "landmark cases" companion book, available for >>

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